When Episode VII’s new star BB-8 rolled out onto the stage of the Anaheim Convention Center last week during the opening panel of Star Wars Celebration, he was greeted with gasps, applause and all around dropped jaws from the crowd of 5000 seated in the arena. Everyone one of us immediately thought two things: WOW, he’s not CGI and I WANT ONE. Now, it looks like the folks at Sphero will make this wish come true.

Sphero CEO Paul Berberian confirmed rumors that his company is involved in the creation of BB-8 and that a retail version will be availible later this year. Sphero received funding from Disney, is best known for its eponymous motorized ball, which users can control with their smartphones through Bluetooth.

There is only a teaser page to go on, but perhaps the signup form will provide more answers soon as to when we may have our favorite new character from a galaxy far, far away rolling into our homes!

The STARZ Original series “Ash vs Evil Dead” began production this month in New Zealand on the 10-episode first season of the half-hour series executive produced by Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell, the original filmmakers of the franchise, and Craig DiGregorio who will serve as executive producer and showrunner. “Ash vs Evil Dead” is the long-awaited follow-up to the classic horror film franchise The Evil Dead and is set to premiere on STARZ in fall 2015.

Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip.

Star Wars Celebration gave us a second tease of EPISODE VII, a glimpse of BATTLEFRONT, and now, our first look at STAR WARS REBELS Season Two, including the return of the Ghost crew, some familiar faces, and frightening new enemies…

Star Wars Celebration began with a blast today inside the arena at the Anaheim Convention Center where Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy ending the opening panel with the second teaser trailer. Before the panel ended, Kennedy quoted Steve Jobs’ classic “One More Thing” to surprise the crowd with this amazing glimpse into the film that will reunite Han, Luke and Leia on the big screen after 32.5 years!

Although 2014 isn’t over yet and San Diego Comic-Con is over a half a year away, we can’t help but let our imaginations wander ahead to July 2015 where there could potentially be more amazing panels and presentations than ever before inside Hall H and beyond. Read on for a list of the films with the biggest potential to make you salivate inside Hall H next summer…

Variety — “With theater chains defecting en masse, Sony Pictures Entertainment has pulled the planned Christmas Day release of “The Interview.” U.S. officials have reportedly linked a massive cyber attack against Sony to North Korea, which is at the center of the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy.

“We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public,” Sony said in a statement. “We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.”

A few hours after making the announcement, a studio spokesman said that Sony had “no further plans” to release the comedy, either on VOD or DVD.”

On the morning of October 25, 1985, Doctor Emmet L. Brown requested that Marty McFly meet him late that night at the Twin Pines Mall. Doc claimed that he “made a major breakthrough” and would need Marty’s assistance.

Although we are currently living in a different timeline where the mall is known not as “Twin Pines Mall” nor “Lone Pine Mall” but “Puente Hills Mall,” a group of faithful fans of the scientist’s work still honor that red letter late night / early morning when Doc Brown conducted the first successful temporal experiment #1 at 1:20 AM and zero seconds, sending his dog Einstein one minute into…THE FUTURE!

Thanks to all that met up at the mall, and for anyone looking to join up for next year (or just be part of a super cool BTTF fan community), please feel free to join the Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twinpinesmall.

See you next time we go BACK to the historical parking lot, late night October 25 (early morning of the 26th)! Or if you just want to check it out:

Last Friday night in Los Angeles, Disney’s El Capitan Theatre again played host to Frozen, bringing the magical animated film back to the big screen for a limited Sing-A-Long engagement. We were there.

On the same evening, the wonderful New Beverly Cinema held one of its regular midnight screenings of Edgar Wright’s 2010 Epic of Epic Epicness, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. We were there as well.

While we revisited these two classics, we couldn’t help but notice some interesting similarities. They might not seem like a fitting double bill… but they just may have more in common than you think (or at least 45 seconds)…

While the big studio Comic-Con panels were wowing Fanboy and Fangirl eyes with their big presentations of upcoming blockbusters in Hall H, we took a detour and gave our eyes a rest in favor of our ears… more specifically, The Second Annual Musical Anatomy of a Superhero panel, where we had the chance to sit down with composer Christophe Beck. If Mr. Beck is not as much of a household name as the likes of John Williams and Danny Elfman, he soon will be, having recently broken the record for most weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart with his FROZEN score, ending the streak for the longest running #1 soundtrack (previously held by Disney’s The Lion King).

While Beck popped onto our radar with his pitch perfect musical accompaniment to Disney’s groundbreaking short, “Paperman,” as well as his work on the two recent Muppet movies, it was his magical score for Walt Disney Feature Animation’s 2013 film that captured our frozen hearts, seamlessly working with Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez’ catchy tunes. But how does a musical maestro like Beck conjure up such melodic magic? Mr. Beck shared with us one instance on Frozen, right before “Let It Go,” where his original vision for Anna setting out of Arendelle in pursuit of Elsa was rethought, in the composer’s words, “to be more about determination and family bond than something bad that happened.”

Christoph Beck is currently scoring “Hot Tub Time Machine 2″ and “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”

We here at Entertainment Geekly have realized that we have neglected a core group of our fellow geeks. We have spent so much time reporting on news of geekly interest for fangirls and fanboys over the years, but have never once done a piece on and for FANPETS! Well, that ends today, because, thanks to the fine folks at Petco, new Star Wars toys and apparel are on the way to help all our dog and cat geeks out there rejoice!

Many of our dog and cat readers are probably already aware of the amazing line of Star Wars items available at their local Petco and the Petco online store. Our personal favorite has always been the Chewbacca Hoodie and Princess Leia Cat Headpiece! The newest items from the Star Wars Pet Fans Collection include an Ewok outfit for dogs and amazing vintage retro Episode IV hoodie as well. The new line will be available soon, so all you FanDogs and FanCats out there be sure to tell your owners the great news!

On Tuesday, July 8, 2014, the opening day of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley, we here at EG were midway through the 8 hours and 51 minutes it would take to ESCAPE FROM GRINGOTTS when we began to wonder about HARRY POTTER PHASE 3.

By this point, most Muggles are aware that Universal’s old JAWS attraction was, umm, blown up(?) to make way for the Diagon Alley expansion. And with less and less real estate available in both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure parks, more existing attractions may need to be eliminated if there is to be more Wizarding Magic to come. And so, as the sun blazed down and melted our brains during that epic wait, we began to fantasize about what’s next…

The big day has finally arrived and the brick walls of Diagon Alley have opened to Witches, Wizards and Muggles to explore, that is, to those brave and pasionate souls who possess the virtue of patience. Opening day saw wait times of three hours to simply enter the new land inside Universal Studios Orlando, and an additional SIX to NINE hours to experience Diagon Alley’s new centerpiece, Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts, a state-of-the-art thrill ride which paves the way for the future of E-ticket attractions. Having just returned from the scene, we are here to say that, even with those astronomical waits, it’s truly all worth it.

This new expansion to the Universal Orlando Resort is not only a hit, it’s a game-changer, creating what we feel is the most immersive awe-inspiring physical space inside any theme park on the planet. And that statement alone is unable to do it justice, becuase being inside Diagon Alley, you are not in a theme park… you have left Universal and have been transported inside J.K. Rowling’s imagination, made to instantly forget the trials and tribulations of your reality.

Cosplayers flocked to the Anaheim Convention Center this weekend for WonderCon and EG was on the scene to catch up with some of the best. Taking place right across the street from Disneyland seemed to bring out droves of Disney-inspired cosplay — take a look in our Facebook gallery HERE!

Arnold Schwarzenegger said he’d be back, and when Arnold speaks, our butts are in the seats. And for every miss like The Last Stand, there’s some good quotable Arnie in Escape Plan… and then there’s Sabotage, the DEA cop thriller by David “End of Watch” Ayers.

The film opens strongly enough with some gun violence, before the two hours we spend with mostly annoying characters, like LOST’s Josh Holloway and The Killing’s Mireille Enos in a role that’s so grating, you may end up offing yourself during the film. Read that carefully: two hours of annoying characters. Well, at least there will be more gunplay right? Would you be surprised if there isn’t as much as the trailers would lead you to believe?

No, Sabotage is a thriller, a “who dunnit” with layers that you don’t give a shit about. Who stole the money? Who really cares, give us something interesting, not cops bantering about their sexual conquests or DEA agents also bantering about their sexual conquests. The pacing is so slow and awkward, balanced poorly with “radical camerawork” like mounting a camera on the muzzle of the gun pointed back at the shooter… FELLINI-ESQUE! And the violence, we keep hearing about how “gory” it is and pushing the limits of the R rating. It doesn’t and it isn’t.

Of the entire cast, it’s Sam Worthington, you know, Avatar’s Jakesully, who gives a real performance, so that should sum up what to expect. Arnold’s fine, but wasted and overall, the film ends up being a letdown and a bore. Skip it completely and pretend it never existed.